Device for unloading and conveying grain



(NoModeL) G. BENJAMIN.

Device for Unloading and Conveying Grain.

No. 238,554. Pa tented March 8,1881.

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-UNITE STATES PATENT rrrcn.

GEORGE D. BENJAMIN, OF DIXON, ILLINOIS.

DEVICE FOR UNLOADING AND CONVEYING GRAIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 238,554, dated March 8, 1881.

Application filed January 21, 1881.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE D. BENJAMIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Dixon, in the county of Lee and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Iniprovements in Devices for Unloading and Conveying Grain; and I do hereby declare the following to be full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to devices for unloadin g grain-ears and transferring their contents to other receptacles, such as elevators, vessels, or other cars; and it consists in an elevated track or roadway on which the grain-cars are to be run, superimposed over a series of hoppers or hopper-shaped boxes or bins, connected by vertical pipes with one or more conductingpipes leading to the main tube or pipe which conveys the grain to the receptacle designed to receive it.

In the accompanyingsheet of drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation, showing the elevated track, bins, series of pipes, and cars in position to discharge their load. Fig. 2 is a plan View of my invention, and Fig. 3 is an end elevation, partly in section.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts-in the several figures.

a to represent cars on the railway or elevated track in position to be unloaded. his the elevated track or road on which the grain-cars are run. g g are the timbers which support the same. It is obvious that this track may be elevated at any height above the surface of the ground, to admit of placing beneath the bins or hoppers b and the vertical pipes 0, leading to the conducting-pipes (l, which empty into the main pipe 6.

In cases where the grain is designed to be transferred from the car to the elevator (and this is the case in themajorityof instances) the elevated track is placed close beside the elevator, andthe main or carryingpipe is very short, or the track may be constructed within the elevator.

It is designed that the grain shall be discharged in every case by gravity alone, and for (No model.)

this purpose the conductors d and the main pipe 6 are inclined at sufficient angles to enable the grain to be carried, by its own weight, into the elevator or other receptacle.

The bins or hoppers may be made of any size, but preferably half the length of a car, and of sufficientdepth to contain each not less than a car-load of grainsay five hundred bushels-and in each of the vertical pipes a slide or gate,f, is placed,so that grains of different kinds and grades may be unloaded simultaneously from a train of cars into different bins and kept there, without mixing, until ready to be received in the elevator. The hopper-shaped tops are essential, but the lower part of the bins may be made of any shape, and the vertical pipes 0 may be made long or short, as the bins are deepened. The gates (represented in the drawings as being in the pipe) may be placed in the lower part of the bin, if desirable. By opening these gates the contents of each separate hopper will be delivered to the elevator.

It is designed to use cars having gates or doors in their floors, so that the whole lading can be discharged at once, and cars of this character are made the subject of an application for patent now pending before theoffice; but ordinary cars may be unloaded into the bins.

The elevated track and the systems of bins and tubes may he roofed and inclosed, where the grain is designed to remain for a considerable time in the bins, or may be entirely uncovered and unprotected, where only used to shift the grain from the grain-car to another car or vessel. The approach to this elevated track is by the usual inclined plane, and the elevation may be as great or as little as is requisite for the purpose desired. In practice, it is found that an angle of twenty-five degrees is sufficient to carry the grain through the pipes d and e by its own weight.

It shows the rails on which the grain-cars are to be run to discharge their contents, supported by the uprights g g; and f are gates in the vertical pipes c, to retain the grain in the bins until ready to be delivered in the elevator.

A valuable feature of my invention consists in making the bins hopper-shaped at the top, the upper edge of one bin forming an angle with the next, so that the train of cars can be run on the elevated track without requiring that each car shall be exactly over the center of the bin below, since, should the grain be delivered on the dividing-line between two of the bins, it will be received with the same certainty as if the car were over the center of such bin.

In the drawings I represent but one main or elevator pipe, 0 but, if desirable, there maybe two or more such pipes leadinginto the elevator, and where the elevated track is long it is better to arrange the system of pipes in this manner, as the elevation of the track would otherwise be increased in proportion to the length of the conducting-pipes (Z, in order to secure sufficient inclination to allow the grain to flow freely through the pipes.

WVhen it is desirable to shift the lading ot'a car to another car or vessel the construction is similar, and the elevated track may lead to a wharf or to another track passing beneath it.

The operation of my device is as follows: The train of grain-cars is run upon the elevated track, and when in position over the bins the cars are opened, the contents are discharged and received within the hoppers, and carried bythe series of pipesinto the elevator or other receptacle. Each of the vertical pipes 0 being provided with a gate, the grain may be retained in the bins at will, or allowed to pass at once into the elevator.

Having thus described the construction and operation of my device, what I claim as my invention, and desired to have secured by Letters Patent, is

1. An elevated railway-track connected with a series of hopper-mouthed bins and tubes arranged below the track to convey grain directly from the grain-car to the elevator or other receptacle.

2. In adevicefor unloading grain from graincars, the combination of the elevated track h, hopper-mouthed bins b, and series of tubes 0 d c, all arranged and operating substantially as described, and for the purpose specified.

3. The combination of the elevated track h, hopper-bins b, and tubes 0, provided with gates, whereby different grades of grain may be unloaded simultaneously from different cars and retained, without mixture, above the main delivery-pipe for subsequent separate discharge.

4. The combination of the elevated track It and hopper-bins 1), arranged with the adjacent edges of every two bins meeting at an angle, whereby the grain may be readily received into the said hopper-bins irrespective of the especial location of the cars on said track.

In testimony whereof I afliX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEO. D. BENJAMIN.

Witnesses J. GALES MooRE, IRVING G. ASHLEY. 

